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Wind tunnel tests on two-dimensional air intakes at DRDC Valcartier

An increasing interest in ramjet propulsion for tactical supersonic missiles has been observed worldwide recently, due to the improved performance it provides in terms of range and speed compared to solid propellant rocket propulsion. DRDC Valcartier in Canada and TNO Defence, Security and Safety in the Netherlands are currently working jointly to improve their capacity to numerically predict the internal performance of ramjet powered missiles. Air intakes are employed on several operational cruise missiles that use ramjet airbreathing propulsion during the supersonic cruise flight phase. It is recognized that the operation of airbreathing missiles is strongly dependent on the efficiency of their air intake systems. Accurate experimental data on the performance parameters of ramjet air intakes at different angles of attack during on- and off-design operation are required in order to verify the accuracy of numerical predictions. However, the quantity and quality of experimental data on air intake performance available in the open literature are very limited. Therefore, it was decided to investigate the possibility of performing air intake performance measurements in the trisonic wind tunnel at DRDC Valcartier to generate additional experimental data for comparison with numerical simulations. This memorandum describes possible procedures and instrumentation that would be required to test ramjet air intakes in the DRDC Valcartier trisonic wind tunnel.